Ning adds virtual gifts

Seems all the social sites are taking a queue from virtual worlds and letting users buy and sell virtual goods (e.g., virtual clothes, furnishings, holiday stuff, even hair-dos). Now Ning.com, the site that lets users create their own social networks, is letting them create their own virtual gifts, “bringing a built-in virtual goods store to the site’s 1.6 million networks,” TechCrunch reports. So, for example, the “Brooklyn Art Project network can offer gifts that are miniature versions of hand-drawn artwork” and “the New Kids on the Block” network can sell gifts like the bandmembers’ faces,” TechCrunch adds. Meanwhile, Marketing Vox reports that the virtual goods market will hit $1 billion this year. For background on Ning, see “Zillions of social network sites” and “Anyone can have a social site now.”